Embodiments of the present invention relate to a device for monitoring access to a storage area of a plurality of storage areas for goods. Further embodiments relate to a method of monitoring access to a storage area of a plurality of storage areas for goods. Some embodiments relate to an electronic order-picking aid with area monitoring.
Order-picking is the central function of logistics and has a significant influence on other divisions of a company such as production or distribution. Order-picking is understood to mean compiling of individual items (partial quantities) among a total quantity (range of products) on account of requests (order). Order-picking takes place at different points in a logistics chain. For example, within a company, there may be order-picking between a storage area and production so as to ensure optimum supply of material in manufacturing and assembly.
When goods and objects among the total quantity (e.g. stock on hand) are picked or sorted as individual items, it is human resources that are mostly drawn on even in high-wage countries on account of the complex gripping task involved in retrieving and depositing objects to be picked.
In this context, an individual item (partial quantity, retrieval unit) is retrieved among the total quantity (range of products) of many different articles stored in storage areas (staging units) and is set up as a new combination in accordance with the order.
An order-picker will act in accordance with the order data provided to him/her.
In this context, there are different systems both for provision of information (i.e. what is to be picked) and for error monitoring.
As with all manual processes, errors may occur in order-picking. Said errors may be categorized into four groups of errors, for example (type error, omission error, state error, and quantity error).
In order to support order-picking, i.e. to support avoidance of errors in and to accelerate order-picking, specification systems may be employed which indicate to the order-picker the storage area (place of retrieval) from which the product is to be retrieved. The shared weakness of the specification systems is the lacking verification of the specifications made.
One system is known wherein the order-picker wears an RFID reader with an antenna in the form of a watch on his/her wrist. The storage locations have RFID transponders mounted thereat which the order-picker are expected to come very close to with his/her “watch” for a specific time period in each case for confirmation purposes. The system has the decisive disadvantage of interference with the order-picking process. Even though the order-picker may reduce errors here, he/she is expected to perform specific movements that are not part of his/her natural flow of movements.
In summary, known solutions heavily interfere with the operational procedures and/or with the order-picker's personal comfort. The order-pickers (performing persons) are partly obliged to keep to, or learn, a specific sequence of actions in order to use the provided technical support in performing their tasks. The accompanying electronic setup also may utilize a structural change in the storage organization and lays down specifications for the internal design of the storage room.